HAPPY ASSOCIATES ARE PRODUCTIVE ASSOCIATES

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HAPPY ASSOCIATES ARE PRODUCTIVE ASSOCIATES!

• BETH THOMAS
• SEQUENT

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What are we going to talk about.

• Why is Happiness such a hot topic?
• Survey Says.
• Top ten reasons why associates are productive
  associates
• Employee Engagement Can you teach it?
• Applying it to the bottom line

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Happiness

• Why is it such a hot topic
• Courses at colleges (Harvard)
• Books galore? Why are people in search of
  Happiness and why is it so important at work?
• Discuss the results to the L2008 survey

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Survey says.

• According to a survey that went out to Learning
  registrants for L2008.Here is what we found
• On a scale from 1-10, 45 said they were 8 or
  above in regards to being happy at work.
• Based on , what of your employee base is
  happy, 39 said 70 or higher
• Some of the TOP reasons
• Challenging work
• Autonomy
• Flexibility
• Interesting and meaningful work
• Great manager / boss / great people to work with
• How does this affect productivity?

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Top 10 reasons WHY Happy Associates are
Productive Associates..
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TEN

• Happy people work better with othersHappy people
  are a lot more fun to be around and consequently
  have better relations at work. This translates
  into
• Better teamwork with your colleagues
• Better employee relations if youre a manager
• More satisfied customers if youre in a service
  job
• Improved sales if youre a sales person

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NINE

• Happy people are more creativeIf your
  productivity depends on being able to come up
  with new ideas, you need to be happy at work.
  Check out the research of Teresa Amibile for
  proof. She says
• If people are in a good mood on a given day,
  theyre more likely to have creative ideas that
  day, as well as the next day, even if we take
  into account their mood that next day.
• There seems to be a cognitive process that gets
  set up when people are feeling good that leads to
  more flexible, fluent, and original thinking, and
  theres actually a carryover, an incubation
  effect, to the next day.

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EIGHT

• Happy people fix problems instead of complaining
  about themWhen you dont like your job, every
  molehill looks like a mountain. It becomes
  difficult to fix any problem without agonizing
  over it or complaining about it first. When
  youre happy at work and you run into a snafu -
  you just fix it.

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SEVEN

• Happy people have more energyHappy people have
  more energy and are therefore more efficient at
  everything they do.

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SIX

• Happy people are more optimisticHappy people
  have a more positive, optimistic outlook, and as
  research shows (particularly Martin Seligmans
  work in positive psychology), optimists are way
  more successful and productive. Its the old
  saying Whether you believe you can or believe
  you cant, youre probably right all over again.

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FIVE

• Happy people are way more motivatedLow
  motivation means low productivity, and the only
  sustainable, reliable way to be motivated at work
  is to be happy and like what you do. I wrote
  about this in a previous post called Why
  motivation by pizza doesnt work.

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FOUR

• Happy people get sick less oftenGetting sick is
  a productivity killer and if you dont like your
  job youre more prone to contract a long list of
  diseases including ulcers, cancer and diabetes.
  Youre also more prone to workplace stress and
  burnout.
• One study assessed the impact of job strain on
  the health of 21,290 female nurses in the US and
  found that the women most at risk of ill health
  were those who didnt like their jobs. The impact
  on their health was a great as that associated
  with smoking and sedentary lifestyles (source).

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THREE

• Happy people learn fasterWhen youre happy and
  relaxed, youre much more open to learning new
  things at work and thereby increasing your
  productivity.

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TWO

• Happy people worry less about making mistakes -
  and consequently make fewer mistakesWhen youre
  happy at work the occasional mistake doesnt
  bother you much. You pick yourself up, learn from
  it and move on. You also dont mind admitting to
  others that you screwed up - you simply take
  responsibility, apologize and fix it. This
  relaxed attitude means that less mistakes are
  made, and that youre more likely to learn from
  them.

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ONE

• Happy people make better decisionsUnhappy people
  operate in permanent crisis mode. Their focus
  narrows, they lose sight of the big picture,
  their survival instincts kick in and theyre more
  likely to make short-term, here-and-now choices.
  Conversely, happy people make better, more
  informed decisions and are better able to
  prioritize their work.

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Top 10 reasons WHY Happy Associates are
Productive Associates..

• Happy people work better with others
• Happy people are more creative
• Happy people fix problems instead of complaining
  about them
• Happy people have more energy
• Happy people are more optimistic
• Happy people are way more motivated
• Happy people get sick less often
• Happy people learn faster
• Happy people worry less about making mistakes -
  and consequently make fewer mistakes
• Happy people make better decisions

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Employee Engagement

• Definition?
• Its NOT employee satisfaction?
• How to measure?
• What can YOU do in Learning and Development to
  make it happen?

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How does this apply to the bottom line?

• Do the executives in your company feel that
  employee engagement is critical?
• What happens if employees are
• Engaged?
• Not engaged?
• Can engagement be trained?
• Statistics / Proving it to the executives

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How does working in a virtual world affect
happiness?

• How does it affect the worker?
• Do YOU work in a virtual world?
• Benefits
• Pitfalls?
• How does it affect the colleagues?
• Does that affect your ability to build a
  relationship
• Do you train a virtual world?
• How?
• Is part of the training how to stay engaged?
  Stay happy?

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QUESTIONS?

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Thanks for coming!

• BETH THOMAS
• SEQUENT
• BTHOMAS_at_SEQUENT.BIZ